My Priorities
Affordable Housing
The lack of affordable housing has made our city too expensive for many people to live, driving younger people out of the area and even contributing to our unhoused population. Years of stagnant growth, zoning regulations, and lot-size/design requirements have increased our housing shortage, raised the economic floor on low-income housing, and allowed poorly utilized and environmentally unsustainable developments. We need to diversify our land uses to encourage a variety of housing types, allowing people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and stages of life to live and thrive here. We are also in need of greater resources for the unhoused, including transitional housing, social services and an allowance of housing options that make sense for the extremely low end of the income spectrum.
East Grand Avenue
East Grand Avenue is an underutilized corridor of the city with an incredible amount of potential. We need to prioritize the revitalization of the corridor and concentrate on infill development that adds new multi-family and missing-middle homes as well as diverse businesses. By doing this, we will provide residents with access to more goods and services and can help turn this part of town into a more walkable community.
Childcare
One of the best ways to support the economic success of our families is by expanding access to affordable childcare. Childcare costs have increased considerably more than the cost of other essentials and is now one of the biggest monthly expenses for families with young children. If parents can’t find care for their kids, they may reduce hours or drop out of the workforce entirely, leading to both staffing shortages and economic distress. By expanding access to affordable childcare, we can improve outcomes for not only the family but also the local economy.
Quality of Life
One of the things that I (and so many) love about AG is the fact that we are a close-knit community and a great place to raise a family. To maintain this, we need to make sure our city remains accessible to families and focusing on improvements that enhance the lives of people in our community.
While we have made progress over the years, we need to continue addressing our lack of safe pedestrian and bike infrastructure and ensure our community is walkable. We need to increase proximity to vital services and amenities, as well as provide safe routes to schools for our kiddos and reduce our dependence on cars. By ensuring our neighborhoods are thoughtfully designed, we will be able to maintain our small town charm and the quality of our lives.
Planning for the Future
Part of the responsibility of the City Council is planning for the future, especially as we are updating our General Plan. This means updating our development code to allow different uses, fostering the building of affordable housing, and encouraging infill development to put underutilized properties to use. It means focusing on economic development and bringing well-paying jobs to our community, updating infrastructure, improving public safety, providing recreation opportunities and maintaining community facilities, preserving air and water quality, and more.
Being a (semi) coastal, California community leaves us with further challenges. Although our water sources are in much better shape than a few years ago, as climate change has essentially ensured extremes will become a constant, another drought is somewhat inevitable. We must plan for alternative water sources, even when times are good. As seen over the past few years, we are also susceptible to extreme weather including atmospheric rivers, flooding, wildfire, and extreme heat, all of which are capable of causing massive damage, disrupting and even endangering our lives.
We will need to plan accordingly and reduce environmental hazards, maintain, monitor and update our critical infrastructure, act to improve storm water drainage, maintain our creek beds, and work to prevent wildfires. We will also need to have a plan in place for saving lives and maintaining energy sources during extreme weather events.
Overall, We have a responsibility to our citizens to plan and implement strategies to reduce the effects of the climate crisis, and it’s something we need to do quickly.
Paid for by Maraviglia for City Council 2024 FPPC#1470547